Gray matter covariations and core symptoms of autism: the EU-AIMS Longitudinal European Autism Project.
Ting Mei, Alberto Llera, Dorothea L Floris and 15 others
PMID 33126911WHAT IT FOUND
Autism was associated with gray matter density patterns across connected brain networks, especially insula, frontal, caudate, amygdala, hippocampus, and parahippocampal areas.
Within autism, the strongest relationships were with repetitive behaviors and sensory symptoms.
Key findings
01Autism was associated with two gray matter density covariation patterns that remained after correction, involving insula, inferior frontal gyrus, orbitofrontal cortex, and caudate, and amygdala, hippocampus, and parahippocampal gyrus.
02Within autistic participants, brain patterns were significantly associated with symptom profiles; restricted and repetitive behavior scores contributed most to the ADI/ADOS analysis, and sensory profile scores contributed most to the parent-report analysis.
03After ADHD status was included as a covariate, IC14 remained associated with autism, while IC10 did not.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The standard single-region voxel analysis did not find significant gray matter density differences between groups after correction. Only 55.9% of the autism group had complete parent-reported symptom questionnaire data, which may have lowered statistical power for symptom-brain analyses. The groups differed in sex distribution, although analyses adjusted for sex. The sample included a wide age and IQ range and did not exclude co-occurring psychiatric symptoms, so the findings may reflect a heterogeneous group rather than a narrow autism profile. Medication use and other sources of variance may still have influenced the brain findings.
Declared interests
Funding sources named include the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research VICI, Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award, Autism Research Trust, Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking, Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking, China Scholarship Council, European Union Seventh Framework Programme, and European Community's Horizon 2020 Programme.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat these brain patterns as a diagnostic test or as evidence that autism is caused by these regions. The study found group-level associations in a large research sample, and IC10 did not remain associated with autism after ADHD status was considered.